Ross 128

A nearby red dwarf that is also a flare
star. Ross 128, also known by its variable-star name FI Virginis, lies
in the constellation Virgo near the line of
the ecliptic, at a distance of 10.92 light-years
(3.35 pc). It was discovered in 1925 by Frank Elmore Ross who first reported it in his "Second List of New Proper-Motion Stars," Astronomical
Journal (36:856). Its nearest neighbor is Wolf
359, at a distance from it of 3.79 light-years (1.16 pc).

Ross 128 in science fiction

As in the case of a number of other stars that are either near neighbors
of the Sun or bright stars in our night sky, Ross 128 has made appearances
in science fiction. In Gregory Benford's Across the Sea of Suns (1984), it is depicted as having a planet with a large moon that is home
to a race of intelligent amphibians. In the short story "Galactic North,"
by Alastair Reynolds, Ross 128 is the source of an outbreak of self-replicating
machines (see von Neumann probe),
which poses a threat to living things across the Galaxy.